Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/48

 a Burghmote, for that is Three times a Year by the Saxon Laws. It is not a County Court, for that by Edward the Senior’s Laws, N. 11. was in theſe words. “Je Wille that ælc Gerefa hæbbe Gemot a ynib feower Wucan.” I will that each Greve have a Gemot at about Four Weeks. So that there were Twelve in the Year. It was not the Sheriffs Turn, or le Turne del Vicount, for that was twice a Year; twa Scirgemot on ger, by the Laws of King Edgar, cap. 5. it is not the Gemot for the View of Weapons or Arms, which every Freeman in England was charged with, and was bound to ſhew once every Year, and, as was wifely contrived, all in one Day throughout all England; but that Day was not in our Kalends of May, but the Morrow after Candlemaſs, Craſtine Purificationis B. M. And therefore I cannot for my Life make any thing elſe of an Univerſal Anniverſary Full Folkmote, which is but ''ſemel in Anno, ſcilicet in capite Kal. Maii'', but a Stationary Parliament: Eſpecially conſidering who they were and what they did.

The next thing to be conſidered is the Author or Founder of this Ancient Conſtitution, which we have in the aforeſaid Chap. De Greve, Num. 35. amongſt the Laws of Good King Edward, “Hanc Legem Invenit Arthurus, qui quondam fuit